McKenzie, Alexander Grant

No.5761 – Private Alexander Grant McKenzie – 16^th Battalion AIF

Alexander Grant McKenzie was born in Wollongong New South Wales in 1878. He was educated in New South Wales and later moved to Western Australia where he took up work as a Lumper.

In 1907 he married Elizabeth Bryant in Fremantle and they resided at 63 and 67 Cantonment Street. On the 1^st March 1916 Alex went to the Fremantle Drill Hall to enlist in the AIF. He was passed as fit with the Medical Examiner finding him to be 5 feet 9 inches tall; weight of 148 lbs; chest measurement of 36-38 inches; ruddy complexion; blue eyes and brown hair. His religious denomination was Church of England.

After a few weeks at the training deport at Blackboy Hill Camp Alex was assigned to the 18^th Reinforcements to the 16^th Battalion on the 4^th April 1916. He trained with them in Fremantle for the next three months while they waited for their embarkation orders to arrive. These finally came through and on the 18^th July 1916 Alex and his group boarded the HMAT Seang Bee in Fremantle Harbour and set sail for England, where they arrived at Plymouth on the 9^th September 1916.

When they were disembarked Alex and his group marched out to the 4^th Training Battalion at Codford Camp. Alex was to train here for the remainder of 1916 and on the 28^th November was sent to Sutton Veny hospital with influenza. He remained here for a few weeks, only rejoining the Training Battalion on the 20^th December 1916. Six days later Alex was returned to hospital suffering from debility though he soon returned to his unit.

On the 8^th February 1917 Alex was in Folkestone and boarded the S.S. Princess Victoria which took him across the Channel to France. Alex spent a couple of days at the 4^th Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples but was taken on strength of the 16^th Battalion on the 13^th February 1917. The 16^th Battalion were then in the Flers region of the Somme battlefield though they would not be here for long as the Germans began a gradual withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. As a result of the German withdrawal to this position, the 16^th Battalion as part of the 4^th Brigade had been earmarked for an assault on Bullecourt. On the 11^th April 1917, the 16^th Battalion along with the 13^th Battalion attacked the heavy defences of the Hindenburg Line without artillery support and managed to break through and capture a portion of the line. However being unsupported they were not able to hang on for long and the Germans soon swarmed on the survivors forcing those still alive to make their way across No Man’s Land or to be taken prisoner.

During the battle Alex had been wounded in the German positions with a bullet wound to his thigh and therefore could not make it back to the Australian positions and was captured. His wound was treated by the Germans and he was interned at Dulmen Prisoner of War Camp. He was able to send a few messages while he was a POW. The first being on May 27^th 1917 when he stated that;

“My wound is getting along nicely, and I am out of Hospital but I am very weak in the legs, and takes me all my time to walk about.” Seven days later he was able to send another message; “Just a few lines to you hoping all are well, my wound is just about healed up now, but I cannot get about much on account of weakness. I have not received anything from the Red Cross up till now but might get them any time now and smokes are awful scarce, a good player’s would be a treat just now. The weather has been very changeable here lately.”

After his wound recovered Alex was put to work by the Germans though continued to send messages to ask for items such as socks, trousers and boots through the Red Cross as everything was in short supply. A Private Robson of the Lancashire Fusiliers stated;

“Pte McKenzie was sent with me along with a number of others from Dulmen Lager in Germany to Hattern Waterwork where we started work on the 24^th of September 1917. We were forced to work 10 hours per day for 6 days a week receiving one mark per day. McKenzie seemed to keep in good health up to the great plague of Grippe (Flu) came over when all the English complained of being ill starting on October 4^th 1918 but McKenzie went to bed on October 6^th (Sunday morning) and seemed to get worse every day when on the Thursday morning the doctor ordered him to be sent back to Dulmen Lager Hospital but the German in charge of the working party kept him back till Saturday October 12^th 1918 when he was sent back in a cart with a Frenchman to look after him but unfortunately poor Mac died within a mile of the Lager in the Frenchman’s arms, and when the Frenchman came back and told us the news we all felt very sorry indeed.”

The Frenchman was Poulain Gaston and he also wrote to the Red Cross about Alex stating that;

“I went to accompany him in the vehicle as far as the camp. He was seated near me in the vehicle & we had taken necessary precautions so that he should not take cold, but it was too late, he was unconscious on leaving our barrack where we were quartered and he died at about three kilometres before arriving at the camp. He died close to me without having said a word.”

Alex died on October 12^th 1918 and was buried at Dulmen though after the war was exhumed and sent to Cologne Southern Cemetery in plot X.C.7.